Four running for two seats in state rep. District 24 in New Castle and Rye

Saturday

Oct 27, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Michelle Kingstonmkingston@fosters.com

NEW CASTLE/RYE — There are two seats available in the Rockingham County state representative District 24 race, which is made up of New Castle and Rye. The Democrats have David A. Borden of New Castle and Tom Sherman of Rye. The Republicans have Will Smith of New Castle and Raymond Tweedie of Rye.

Borden, 76, has a bachelor’s of arts from the University of Colorado. He has served on the New Castle Budget Committee, Trustee of the Trust Fund, Capital Improvement Plan Committee and the Energy Committee. He is the chair of Sustainable Harvest International and a board member of New Hampshire Rivers Council and New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association.

Borden is married with seven children and 12 grandchildren. He has lived in the area since 2004, but has spent summers in New Castle since 1974.

He is running to help create jobs.

“The state is losing jobs and credibility as a place to do business. Layoffs resulting from the state budget cuts will reach 5,000 families,” he wrote.

He is also running to help climate change.

“Lobster fishermen, loggers, farmers and town employees all tell me that the climate has changed dramatically in the last 30 year at a growing cost,” he wrote. “The waters of the Gulf of Maine have caused the lobsters to go further offshore costing more in fuel — and fuel cost are also going up.”

Sherman, 54, is a gastroenterologist, a husband and a father of three children. He is looking to promote health in the community and to promote excellence in public education. He is involved with his church and numerous health clinics that help those without access to medical care. Once in office, he wrote that he will seek to provide open and interactive representation of his community without regard to party affiliation.

Smith, 68, a retired technology company executive, studied at the University of Maryland, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. He is the former president and CEO of Telco Systems, Inc. and a member of the New Castle Zoning Board of Adjustment and the moderator at the New Castle Congregational Church. Smith was raised mostly overseas in Chile, China, Hong Kong, Iraq and Greece. He speaks Spanish, Arabic and German. He is married with two children and two grandchildren and has lived in the area for 10 years.

“Although we have reformed our public employee pension and health care plans, our pension system liability is still dangerously under funded,” he wrote about why he is running. “Achieving excellence in education will require providing parents more choices for their children. We need to make our healthcare high quality, and yet affordable by all.”

Smith sees the economy as the biggest issue in the election this year.

“Our unemployment rate, although better than the U.S. average, is too high, so we need to attract quality jobs to NH. Reducing unnecessary regulation of business, lowering business taxes and introducing Right to Work will help bring jobs to N.H.,” he wrote.

Tweedie is a fifth generation Seacoast New Hampshire native. He has three children and has been in the financial services industry for 18 years. He is a parent volunteer at Rye Elementary School, a member of the Rye Pink Sox Board of Directors and the clerk of the Rye Planning Board.

He believes the House did a great job of projecting realistic revenue projections and set reasonable spending to keep New Hampshire living within its means.

“I would oppose any bills that seek to raise taxes and increase regulation,” he wrote.

Tweedie plans to cosponsor and work to introduce Right-to-Work legislation.

“… As a family man, I want to keep our state budget within its means like I do for that of my family. A strong fiscal house means family and economic security. We need to right size regulations in order to encourage job creation and development which allows for increased revenues to take better care of those most in need and in order to have the right level of services for our residents,” he wrote.